This past academic year, we worked with 12 female-identifying students to develop a technical solution for the non-profit organizations Urban Institute and Child Care Aware of America. We are so proud of our fellows and all the work they accomplished, and for the next few weeks, we’ll be featuring these amazing students here on our blog.

This week we are featuring Baishaki Debi. Baishaki is a 3rd-year student at CUNY City College majoring in Computer Science.

Why did you join the wit project?

I joined the wit project because I knew I would be working on an impactful project with other amazing women in tech. When I saw that I would have the opportunity to work with non-profit organizations to tackle a technology problem they were facing, I was ecstatic because not only would I get to enhance my programming skills but I would also be giving back and making a difference.

What has been your favorite part about the volunteership experience? What have you learned from the wit project?

I really enjoyed the weekly meetings that I had with my team when working on our project. It was fun to learn and struggle through this challenge together. But more than that, I loved demoing our solutions to our stakeholders at the non-profit and learning how much our work helped them.

During my time at the wit project, I learned that it's okay to not know everything and to be confused. I learned to reach out for help and ask a ton of questions whenever I was lost. The wit project gave me access to awesome TAs that were always open to answering my questions no matter how trivial they were.

Why is it important to have more women working in tech?

It's important to have more women in tech to serve as role models for those women who don't think they fit into this space. For me personally, it was immensely helpful seeing successful women in tech because it made me believe that I too could break into tech and that I wasn't chasing some impossible dream.

Secondly, technologies/software should easily be usable by both men and women. Currently, software engineering remains a male-dominated field. Which means more men than women are involved in the design process of technological solutions; the experiences of women and their point-of-views are not taken into account. We need more women in tech to change that.

What are your goals for the next year? Where do you want to be in 5 years?

My goals for next year are to continue making progress on my Computer Science classes and complete my SANS Undergraduate Certificate course in Applied Cybersecurity. In 5 years, I want to be a professional Incident Responder helping organizations recover from breaches.

Who’s a #badass technologist you look up to?

I look up to Jen Easterly and Rachel Wilson. They are both phenomenal women in Information Security who have been working tirelessly to enhance our cybersecurity posture and protect vital infrastructure from cyber attacks.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself!

My ear piercings are unusually high up my earlobe because they were done by my grandmother who was losing her sight (due to old age).

MEET OUR WITTY WOMEN: BAISHAKI